Anne Frank
German-born Jewish diarist whose record of two years in hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam annex became one of the most-read first-person documents of the twentieth century and a cornerstone text on conscience, dignity, and the human spirit. Born 1929 in Frankfurt, Anne and her family fled to the Netherlands in 1934; from July 1942 to August 1944 they lived hidden above her father Otto's spice-and-pectin business at Prinsengracht 263. Discovered and arrested, Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in February 1945 at fifteen. Her diary, recovered by Miep Gies and published by Otto in 1947 as Het Achterhuis (The Diary of a Young Girl), has been translated into more than seventy languages and remains among the defining moral testimonies of the modern age. Her sentence 'in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart' is one of the most-quoted lines in any language.
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Quotes by Anne Frank
108 quotes“In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!”
“I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met.”
“I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.”
“When I write I can shake off all my cares.”
“But will I ever be able to write something great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer? I hope so, oh, I hope so very much.”
“Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I've never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.”
“The weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under!”
“Although I'm only fourteen, I know quite well what I want, I know who is right and who is wrong.”
“I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child.”
“I feel completely independent of anyone.”
“No one has ever become poor by giving.”
“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you really don't know how great you can be.”
“I've found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”
“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”
“Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your own heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there.”
“Sympathy, love, fortune... we all have these qualities but tend to forget to use them.”
“I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
“Memory means more to me than dresses.”
“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
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